Destiny Calls
by Mistletoy
Summary: REYLO FIC. Spoilers for The Last Jedi. Three-shot set a couple of months after the movie ends. Kylo and Rey are more alike, than they would like to admit and it makes them both nervous. They connect. In more ways than one. Smut only in chapter III.
1. Push

NOTES:

Smut only in chapter three, if you'd like to avoid it, you can easily read chapters one and two only if you want, take your pick.

It was supposed to be a PWP one-shot, but something clearly went astray.

I can't believe we have to wait two years for the continuation like?

Warning: English is not my first language. I don't write often and it shows. If you spot any particularly clumsy sentences, punctuation or grammar mistakes, please feel free to let me know :)

Any feedback in general is greatly appreciated, whether it be kudos, bookmarks, or comments. Also, this is my first time writing these two.

Enjoy! :)

* * *

She felt him reaching out multiple times after Crait.

It was so frequent that she got used to the weird sensation of being tapped on the shoulder by an invisible hand the moments she least expected it to happen. His looming presence followed her everywhere - when she was eating nutrient paste in the canteen, listening with half an ear to Finn and Rose's playful banter, taking notes during numerous strategic meetings. She felt him lurking in the shadows upon her sudden awakenings from a nightmare in the middle of the night, covered in an icy sweat.

Sometimes she managed to push him out completely, but usually shoving him away just enough, so that she wouldn't see him at least, just feel his slightly voyeuristic vicinity, not quite real, but there.

She didn't tell anyone about the strange connection binding her with Ren.

Finn was a loyal friend, she trusted the ex-stormtrooper and loved him like a brother, but despite everything he's been through, the force was still just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to him, the powerful space magic used to lift rocks and occasionally throw things around. She hadn't even told Leia when she had a chance and now there was nothing she could do to fix that mistake. Couple of weeks before, the general had fainted during one of the war councils. Everyone was exhausted, so such incidents were nothing uncommon, but the whole base was kept at the edge of their seats for three days. Being her usual self, Leia demanded being kept up-to-date with everything, practically leading the resistance from her own bed. And then the unimaginable happened. She fell asleep in the afternoon studying some old maps, never to wake up again. Just like that.

That was when the communication attempts ceased suddenly, like cut with a vibroblade.

Rey sometimes experienced weird, phantom pains and felt ashamed that the possibility of him getting hurt was making her that anxious. Maker her witness, she wanted the link to sever, but the bond felt as natural as breathing; as much as Rey hated to admit it, it was much harder to shun the connection, than to fully embrace the contact and the lack of it was making her strangely uneasy. She felt empty, absent, as if part of her mind was constantly somewhere else.

When she finally decided to reach out to him on her own, Rey felt like a thug prepping for a robbery. It was the dead of night, though she could still hear a distant buzzing outside her small room. Sleep was the last position on a very long list of things to do in the resistance base. She sat on her old, squeaky cot and took a couple of deep breaths.

 _Come on now, it can't be that hard_ , she thought.

All of their previous joinings occurred either without any contribution from their sides, or because Ben somehow managed to get through to her. Rey closed her eyes and tried to recall images.

She could see him clearly in her mind; his imposing posture towering over her, strong shoulders and dark eyes, gleaming in the elevator lights. Broad chest, glistening with steam. She could feel the slightly wet warmth of his hand when their fingers touched clumsily for the first time in a small hut on Ahch-To. His black hair a mess and the determination on his face covered in sweat, when they fought together against the high odds, side by side, back to back, for the first and last time, dancing in perfect synchrony on the floor covered in blood.

In her memory, he wasn't a murderous psychopath that once tortured Poe and kidnapped her, at least it wasn't entirely him. It wasn't Kylo Ren that she was coaxing into joining her that day on the Supremacy. She hated Kylo Ren with all her heart, but with Ben Solo... well, for him her feelings were quite offbeat, whether she wanted this, or not. The image in her head became more vivid, she could almost hear his voice, almost touch him...

'Rey?'

She opened her eyes. He was right there, standing in the far corner of the room, half hidden in the shadows. 'I would lie if I said I wasn't surprised. Why now?'

'Ben, if you don't want to do this now, just say the word.'

Silence. She always called him that. Ben. It's been so long since that name held any meaning to him.

'You've been quiet for some time.'

'I was preoccupied,' he replied with a light chuckle. Rey wondered what kind of activity would make him feel so full of himself, but considering the range of possibilities, she decided it's better not to ask.

As someone that strong in the force, he must have felt his mother's passing. Rey wondered if it had rolled off him like water off a duck's back, or if it was just another one of his countless masks.

Ben took a step forward. 'Can I sit?'

Rey nodded and moved aside on the cot. He was much paler than she remembered him to be, with dark and sickly circles prominent under his eyes, the skin color emphasizing extensive scars on his face now more than ever. At least there was something he couldn't hide.

'Did she suffer?' he inquired casually, as if asking about the model of her blaster. For a brief moment she wanted to scoff at him, to lie out of pure spite, to see these dark, beautiful eyes filled with pain, punish Ben for failing Leia, for failing _her_ when she was ready to bet anything on him making a right decision for once. She could feel the anger slowly boiling in her veins and a second after - shame. How disappointed Luke would be to see her sinking so low?

'No. She died in her sleep. The doctor-' Rey's voice cracked slightly, 'he said that she took too much onto herself too quickly and her heart just gave out.'

'I see.'

Silence stretched between them like a piece of worn, brittle elastex.

'You could have been with her, you know? With your mother. You could have talked to her before she...'

'Rey, don't-' he wriggled uncomfortably on the cot.

'Don't what?! I would give up anything, anything I have ever had for just one chance to see my parents, drunkards or not, and you threw it all away!' Rey said bitterly through the clenched teeth.

'I'm not going to apologize. I did what I had to do,' he countered.

'I don't want any of your apologies. I want you to reconsider,' almost unconsciously, she grabbed his hand for a moment and squeezed gently. He could feel the heat of her skin radiating through the glove. 'In my vision...'

'No vision is certainty. The force may give us an insight, but the future is fluid, shaped by our decisions. We altered ours by choices we have made over Snoke's dead body that day. What we both saw back then doesn't matter anymore.'

He remembered that moment, that spark and images flashing before his eyes. Some blurred, some clear, some depicting things that would disrupt his sleep at night.

'It's not too late, Ben. We can still set it all right, I know we can.'

'Such naivety doesn't suit you, Rey. The resistance would never accept me in their ranks. A monster, the murderer of their friends and family. Especially now, that my mother is gone. There is no going back, don't you get it?'

As he was speaking, more and more agitated, Rey could see irregular red patches crawling randomly onto his face and neck.

'There are dozens of triggers that would happily put me down the second I stepped inside your base, wherever is that hellhole that you're currently hiding in. Like that hip-shooter Dameron, or your treacherous friend, FN-2187-'

'His name is Finn,' she retorted, deeply offended. He could speak whatever the hell he wanted about her, but calling Finn by his number? That was low, even for him.

'Doesn't matter. Besides, do you really think I would like to go back to this? Being a Jedi? Living by the Jedi code that forces me to suppress my emotions? When I told you to let the past die, I meant it. That's not who I am. And it's not who you are either.'

'You don't know a thing about me.'

A lie. But Rey didn't care. The only thing she had in her mind right then was a rising urge to release. To let go of all the pain and tension of the previous months.

His jaw clenched. Her ignorance aggravated him. Why was she so blind? Why couldn't she see that she was destined for something far greater than rotting on some remote planet with a motley crew of rebels?

'You're acting like a child,' she said. 'Off to destroying things and throwing tantrums when something doesn't go the way you wanted it to go!'

His eyes darkened, as Rey's words resonated in his mind along with other, painfully alike.

 _You're just a child in a mask._

 _See you around, kid._

'They really believed in you, you know? Han and Leia-' Rey could almost feel the air electrifying, as she spoke their names. Ben could have easily reached out and choke her if he wanted, crush the trachea with a single move and watch life escape these hazel eyes of hers, he was that close. The thought had definitely crossed his mind.

The rant was unstoppable at that point, with anger and anguish seeping out of her every pore.

'But it seems that they were all wrong. You are just a weak, vicious creature that can only feed on misery, death and pain, like that little worm of yours, Hux, you're not that different after all-'

'THAT'S ENOUGH!'

His words reached her ears and echoed through, as if magnified by thin walls; suddenly, one blink of an eye after the other, Rey was alone again, accompanied by nothing but darkness and a sound of her own sobbing in a piercing cold of her room.


	2. Pull

NOTES:

What can I say, I like my Reylo a bit corny and cliche.

It turned out the three-chapter format will suit this story better - the first chapter mostly from Rey's POV, the second one from Kylo's POV and the third one kinda mixed and (finally) including some proper smut.

Thank you a lot for your feedback left under the previous chapter; you have no idea how much it means to me that you enjoy the story :)

* * *

Out of all pleasurable ways to blow off steam, Kylo Ren has always had a particular preference for one.

There was no more preeminent experience, than the feeling of holding something solid in his hand, that particular tension of muscles when he was pushing his limits more and more until sweat was flooding his vision, leaving him sore and breathless at the end.

He knew nothing better in the whole galaxy, than a proper lightsaber training.

Rigorous physical practice has always been a part of his daily routine; being able to afford the best training droids the credits could buy, he used to spend hundreds of hours on exercises and meditation behind the closed doors of his private sanctum. The main reason for this was quite prosaic - until recently, it was the only place where he never had to wear any masks.

The lightsaber sliced effortlessly through metal. The decapitated droid fell onto the floor like a puppet with strings cut loose, its burnt-out circuits giving off fumes after a long fight. At least there was one thing Hux was right about - an upgraded version of ASP-22 was indeed a top-notch training droid, worth every money and impressively durable, too.

Kylo kneeled down on the floor and closed his eyes, feeling the burning threads of the Force slowly extinguishing in his veins after the fight.

He thought of Rey.

They haven't really talked since their last fall out a couple of weeks before, both being too determined not to show weakness by making the first step to mend their fences, despite the effort it took to constantly block the bond.

 _'Stubborn like an old nerf'_ his mother used to call him when he was young and indeed he was, always pushing to have the final word, even if completely missing the boat on something.

Mother.

Kylo would swear he could almost feel Leia's petite hand tousling his hair like she used to do so often. As absent and unavailable as she was, she always cared deeply for her son, for Ben. Until the very end. He pushed the images away, the memories of his mother still causing him too much pain, magnified by the void he could feel in the Force where her signature has always been, like a hole ripped in a tapestry.

It was a burden that demanded sharing and the Force knew how much he wanted to do so.

Ren often found himself full of conflicting feelings, but the determination habitually prevailed. He **would** put his foot down on this now, even though the scavenger's absence irked him greatly.

Kylo missed her, despite the undoubtedly unnerving effect Rey usually had on him. He's never really had her to begin with, but there was no other word to describe the weird state of emptiness and longing he has been experiencing between their joinings, even more intensely since Rey left him unconscious on the Supremacy, choosing the Resistance and its dogma and low odds over their future together.

She was sometimes present in his dreams, but the figure Kylo encountered there was just a pale imitation of the real thing. It lacked her spirit, unpredictability, an odd beauty, most prominent when she was fighting. Strong, fierce and, most of all, untamed, with her sleek hair a mess, dark streaks glued to her face like tiny serpents, veins popping out on the forehead and an obscene grimace of something that could have only been rage, creeping up on her reddened face once in a while, just before the strike. That day in the throne room, Snoke told Rey that she had a spirit of a true Jedi.

Well, if Kylo was to be the judge of that, he wouldn't agree in the slightest.

But again, his former master was wrong about many things. Ren smirked slightly. He still hasn't got used to that strange feeling of being in charge, freedom of making his own choices, no voice whispering in his ear. It was refreshing, to say the least. A sensation to savour.

* * *

Kylo knew it somewhere deep inside that the next time the force link pops up unexpectedly or Rey pushes through, it was bound to happen in a moment least fitting; he was straight out of the fresher, naked as a jaybird in front of a mirror, busy examining a quite unpleasant state of his body after multiple punches from the training droid, when he felt a familiar poke. For a brief moment he was tempted to resist the connection, but it's been so long since he felt the open door on Rey's side... If she finally wanted to apologize, it could be now or never. He quickly wrapped a towel around his waist and let her in. Rey materialized behind him in a heartbeat, just a few steps away. Her lean frame was covered by fitting woolen pants and a wrapped top, she had her boots on; wherever she was now, unlike him, it seemed like she had no plan to go to sleep any time soon.

'Oh, kriff. I clearly chose the wrong time,' Rey mumbled, averting his eyes, as if she was more concerned with the pattern embroidered on his bedsheet. 'Do you need a moment?'

Well, it's not like he purposely wanted to flash her or show up half-naked. At least, not this particular time.

He nodded.

'I will turn around then.'

Kylo reached out for his trousers and took the towel off. Rey stood back turned like a wax statue, not a single muscle moving in her body. Putting his pants on, he couldn't help but feel slight arousal at the thought of being naked in her presence. Whatever kind of relationship remained between them, the attraction had always been indisputable, even if it was uncomfortable at times.

When he was ready, Kylo went past her and sat down. Rey hadn't moved an inch from where she appeared.

'If any kind of witty remark is already taking shape in your head, you'd better hold your horses,' she started, shifting her feet. 'I wanted to apologize. For the last time. I shouldn't have lashed out at you like that, I'm sorry.'

'I knew the good, little Jedi inside would eventually get the better of you,' he sneered to conceal the relief her words caused. It caught Ren by surprise that she didn't bicker.

The girl let out a small sigh and took a few steps to join him on the bed. She fidgeted a little, testing the mattress. Being the Supreme Leader of the First Order certainly had its perks, it must have been a far cry from her damp cot. Rey looked at him from up close; only then did he realize that something was off. She looked waifish; her bare arms were toned as never before, but the cheeks got a lot more hollow. Her once radiant skin had turned sallow, as if she hadn't seen sunlight for a long time. Kylo remembered what her hands were like when joined with his - strong and a bit calloused, but neat and pleasant to the touch, now neglected, with a layer of grease stuck under short nails.

'I'm just so tired of it all, Ben,' she said, face covered in her hands. 'Tired of this war, of losing people, of constantly being on the move, of being angry at the whole world, at myself, at you.'

Kylo remained silent. He's always been a much better listener, than talker. And it wasn't like anything he'd say would prove a real help. So instead, he focused all his attention on her, like that night in the hut and just let her flow.

'I thought that after the cave on Ahch-To, I will never feel more alone. I was wrong.'

Rey wasn't looking at him, but he could see her lips trembling slightly and tears gathering in her eyes, only to force their way down her cheeks a moment later.

'I am constantly surrounded by people. Believe me, I would love to have more moments just on my own. Rey please do this, Rey could you lift that, Rey would you weigh in on this,' she said, waving her hands around. 'Like, sometimes I can barely find some time to pee in peace,' corners of her mouth twitched a little. 'People look up to me, seeking aid and guidance and I know I cannot fail them, but the whole weight of it falls onto my shoulders like an avalanche, it suffocates me. Finn is doing his best, but he is away most of the time, one mission after another and in these rare moments he's with us, he spends most of the time with Rose and I don't really blame him...'

Kylo had no idea who the _Rose_ girl was, but apparently his convert stormtrooper managed to find himself a girlfriend. The women's taste in men could be all kinds of surprising.

'And Poe is-' Rey paused, suddenly aware that disclosing the rather sorry state of the Resistance's leadership core to the First Order's leader, no matter how special their relationship was, wouldn't be the most sensible thing to do, 'well, he is extremely busy too. It's like I'm standing in the middle of the crowd, yelling and no one can hear me,' she sniffled and continued, 'I feel lonely and it's worse than ever, because I know what it's like not to be, because we once stood side-by-side and I can't forget that, no matter how hard I try.'

'Having second thoughts?'

'No. You know it was the only possible choice.'

Maybe he knew indeed, but it didn't make it any less disappointing.

He didn't want them to argue though. Not again. To his utmost surprise, for the first time in a long time, he felt no usual push. It was bizarre to the point of being almost unreal. That serenity.

'I feel-' Rey bit down on her knuckle, 'unbalanced. Hours pass, one after another and I still lie awake, staring at the ceiling, desperate to sleep. I get angry, but I'm too drained to scream. So I just clench my fists and keep tossing from one side to the other and I dream of being somewhere else, anywhere else, maybe in my cramped, dusty cubbyhole on Jakku...' her voice echoed off the walls of his room, 'with you. Even though both you and this bond drive me crazy at the same time.'

The bluntness of Rey's abrupt confession caught him off guard entirely.

'You look funny when you gape,' the scavenger remarked casually, eyeing him. 'It's stupid, I know. But nothing I do makes any sense,' she exhaled, shaking her head. All he managed to articulate, was a muttered: 'No.'

His reply could have referred to either statements, but it didn't really matter. He knew what he had to do.

'Come here,' he extended his arm invitingly. He noticed Rey hesitating for a split second, but she slowly moved closer, letting him gently encircle her shoulders.

'Good. Now, lie down with me.'

She obeyed, still remaining stiff in his embrace. Kylo wondered if this was the first time she has ever been that intimate with anyone.

'I've got you. You're not alone,' he crooned. His arms had wrapped around her, his warm, large hands covered hers. The girl didn't say a word, but Ren could sense the tension gradually dropping, as her body started to relax and melt into his, filling all the gaps until there was no space left between them. It took every reserve of restraint not to focus on the involuntary sensation caused by her arse pressing tightly into his groin. A boner was the last thing she needed right now.

'Whatever happens, I'm always here. If you want me to,' he whispered into her ear, the proximity of his voice sending light shivers down her spine.

Rey closed her eyes and let herself be lulled by Ben's warmth and steady rhythm of his breath that she could feel on the nape of her neck. Should she feel remorse? Probably. But she couldn't even find proper words to describe how safe and delightful it felt in the arms of the enemy.

The world seemed to have shrunk, as if everything else outside the room was suddenly meaningless, everything but their bodies squeezed together, waves of the Force throbbing under their skin in harmony.

There was no _the Supreme Leader_ and no _the last Jedi_. No war. Only Ben and Rey, seeking comfort in one another. And finding it.

'Ben,' he heard her mumbling quietly, her mind already half-conscious, suspended between the dream and reality, 'do porgs dream of electric sheep?'

On the brink of sleep, Rey heard a low, distant chuckle and then, for the first time in what felt like ages, she sank down completely into a peaceful slumber.


End file.
